Void Arc
Madness: The Gathering Area 72 The First Encounter The party makes their way to Big Smoke, only to discover that a stall selling Tomes of The Void has been set up. They manage to shut it down, however, a small monolith appears in the desert outside of Big Smoke, and attracts all who have read it. The party learns that the monolith can only be destroyed with cold iron. However, the first Herald of The Void emerges, and they manage to defeat it, leaving only its large, orange core behind. Jacke comes to retrieve the core and secure it in The Compound. Attempts to destroy the monolith with cold iron prove unsuccessful, and the party learns that a metal very similar to cold iron, called soul iron, is required. Close Encounters of the Scalykind The party begins its search for soul iron in the village of Kachix. There they learn the locations of the mining villages that use soul iron. En route, they pay a toll to the Strix guarding the mountain pass. They also clear out a den of bears before finally reaching a mining village. There, they learn of a green dragon that has been terrorizing nearby mining villages. In exchange for killing it, they will recieve the soul iron they require. After killing it, Folas sends the bones to his manor to be mounted, and they make its scales into cloaks, thus earning them the title of Dragoncloaks. Information gained *The amount of soul iron available dropped significantly after the defeat of the vampires. To Gaze into Madness Part I The Dragoncloaks meets up with Adanu and his team, who are investigating the White Temple, trying to predict the leyline shift that will place the Black Gate outside of the protection of the White Temple. They investigate the Chamber of The Void, and Discover that the other heralds will attack when the moon shifts colours. Verra joins the Dragoncloaks. They return to The Compound, where they meet disciples of Eresteln. They ask Jacke for his knowledge of Gnomic ruins, hoping it can be used to locate the Gnomic Lens of Filtered Gazing, which they think can be used to read the Tome of The Void. Information gained *Leyline shifts and how they affect portals to other planes *Eresteln: The Saint of Mind-Shielding and his practices of gradually exposing ones self to madness in order to become resistant to it. *The history of Black Gate, and the predicted leyline shift. To Gaze into Madness Part II The party opens the door to the Ch'tater ruins and begins exploring. They discover a gnomic formula for predicting leyline shifts. Information gained To Gaze Into Madness Part III Rogar recieves news that his mother has taken a turn for the worst, and returns to The Compound to tend to her. After he leaves, the party delves deeper into the ruins, and saves a mysterious rogue named Chi. After defeating the guardian, they retrieve the Gnomish Lens of Filtered Gazing. Myles records the leyline shift formula and returns to Runelight. Information gained *The ancient gnomes who built the underground workshops worshipped the machine god; Kern. The Sound of Nothing The party returns to Folas' manor to discover a number of people waiting for them. Senith has returned from a bloody battle with the fallen Skull Champion, who has been storing his life energy inside the bodies of deceased Skull Champions to avoid death. Also waiting for them is a dwarven messager, informing the party that a flood in the Titan's Enclave is believed to have been caused by dwarves of the Skarnvault province, and that the dwarven leaders are going to meet to discuss a course of action. Back at the compound, the party meets up with Eresteln's disciples, who begin to use the lens to decipher the Tome of The Void. Jacke introduces himself to Chi, and then cuts a deal with her, saying he'll give her the location of one gnome ruin for each Herald of The Void she helps slay, plus an additional locationf for each Herald slain once all the Heralds have been defeated. She agrees. Jacke also agrees to help Senith by giving him the location of the final untouched Skull Champion's resting place; the Fire Barrows on the far side of the Centaur Mountains. Finally, Jacke mentions that a small army of Smoke Shamans were en route to invade the city of Black Stump in eastern Gafa, but all mysteriously died before arriving. The party opts to investigate. Folas gains the information required to teleport to Black Stump, but is intercepted by a desparate cleric of Borlung . He says that some dragons from Centaur's Loin are threatening to destroy his shrine. After meeting with the dragons and failing to convince them to leave, they return to the shrine of Borlung and set a trap for them. After slaying them, they continue onwards to Black Stump. Before they reach Black Stump, they find the fallen army of Smoke Shamans.